Jim Oschmann Of Ball Aerospace Elected To Serve As 2017 Vice President Of SPIE

August 31, 2016 – SPIE Fellow Jacobus (Jim) Oschmann, Vice President and General Manager Civil Space at Ball Aerospace, has been elected to serve as the 2017 Vice President of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. With his election, Oschmann joins the SPIE presidential chain and will serve as President-Elect in 2018 and as the society’s President in 2019.

SPIE 2016 President Robert Lieberman made the announcement along with other SPIE election results at the Annual General Meeting of the Society on 30 August during SPIE Optics + Photonics in San Diego. Terms begin 1 January 2017.

Oschmann is chair of the SPIE conference on Space Telescopes and Instrumentation: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave, has chaired the Goddard Award Committee since 2014, and serves on the SPIE Membership Committee. He was an elected member of the SPIE Board of Directors from 2011 through 2013.

Oschmann received his BS from the University of Rochester, and his MBA and MS in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona. His research interests include business aspects of high-technology endeavors, optical systems and components from UV through radio frequency spectrum, telescopes and instrumentation for earth and space observations, communications, and active sensing (optical through RF spectrum), and international scientific partnerships.

Glenn Boreman, Chairman of the Department of Physics and Optical Science and Director of the Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Plasmonics, Inc., will serve as the 2017 President of the Society.

SPIE Vice President Maryellen Giger of University of Chicago (USA) becomes SPIE President-Elect in 2017 and President in 2018.

Gary Spiegel, retired as Senior Vice President at Newport Corp., was elected by SPIE members to serve as the 2017 Secretary/Treasurer.

The newly elected Society Directors, who will serve three-year terms for 2017-2019, are:

Bernard Kress, Microsoft Corp.

David Sampson, The University of Western Australia

Joanna Schmit, 4D Technology

Christina Willis, Fibertek Inc.

The SPIE nominating committee accepts recommendations for the election slate on an ongoing basis. Directors, who serve a three-year term, are expected to attend and participate in three board meetings each year. To make a recommendation, or for more information, email governance@spie.org.

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering and technology. The Society serves nearly 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2015, SPIE provided more than $5.2 million in support of education and outreach programs.